


it's in the cards

by gootarts



Category: Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry
Genre: Alternate Universe-Card Shop/Yugioh, F/M, Rivals to Lovers, they/them used for lion's pronouns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-26 14:34:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13237752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gootarts/pseuds/gootarts
Summary: After his sister loses at one of the local card shop's weekly meetings, Battler decides to defend her honor by defeating Beatrice, one of the shop's regulars.This decision isn't influenced by actually liking her as a rival or anything. Nope. Not at all.





	it's in the cards

**Author's Note:**

> i tried to make this not bogged down with insufferable and obnoxious yugioh terminology. also tried to not make this a ridiculously long fic. i may or may not have failed on at least one of those counts.
> 
>  
> 
> ...and since referencing archetypes by name feels like obnoxious yugioh terminology, here’s a list of who plays what, if you’re curious! i tended to leave that out of the fic, aside from namedropping a couple of beato’s cards, since there's actually a dante's inferno archetype in the game. funny how the world works.   
> Battler: archfiend  
> Beato: burning abyss  
> Maria: fluffal  
> Lion: crystal beasts  
> Bern: metagamer (deck is supposed to be SPYRAL, technically.)  
> Lambda: madolche

  
  
He’d offered to take Ange to the card shop only after what must’ve been a week of incessant...well, not quite begging. But it was close enough that taking her to the local card shop for an hour would almost certainly be the better alternative to hearing her complain about how the elementary school she was at had banned card games during lunch break  _ the day after _ she had finally gotten her hands on her older brother’s collection of cards and made a deck.

 

Battler had popped into the Witches and Sorcerers hobby shop a couple times before to pick up games and such for friends, years ago, but never during their weekly card game scrimmage block. There were a couple flyers in the store window advertising it-it was maybe an hour or two during late Wednesday-and it had seemed like a fairly decent way to amuse her. And just in case it ended up being soul-crushingly boring, he’d packed a couple softcover copies of stuff he’d found at the local bookstore. At the last second, he’d also stuffed in that old deck he’d owned in middle school, not even giving the contents of it a second glance. 

 

They’d walked off the bus, with Ange darting ahead and making a beeline for the backroom of the shop, speedwalking past the displays of games and comics to where the event was hosted as her brother wandered behind. The crowd wasn’t particularly large, maybe a dozen people maximum, most of them already either spectating or engaged in a game already. He catches Ange near the entrance and scans the crowd, trying to see if there was somebody who would maybe go a little easy on an eight-year-old. 

 

Somebody who fits that description catches his eye: a girl who looks about Ange’s age, in the corner with a couple sets of cards set out in front of her. Next to her at the table is an older blonde woman, about his age, talking with her. The girl has a stuffed lion with her, and she smiles as she puppets it across from her, obviously trying to emulate some sort of duel between herself and the lion. 

 

He tries to gently interrupt the pair, walking over and waving, patting Ange on the back as he guides her over.

 

“Hi, my younger sister’s new here and was hoping to find somebody to play against...” The girl’s eyes brighten as she cleans up the gameboard from her ‘match’ with the lion. 

 

“Sure! Me and Sakutaro are really strong!” She taps the deck, now cleaned up, against the table a couple times to align the cards before splitting the deck and shuffling...though in Battler’s eyes, it’s less of a shuffle and more trying to mash the two halves of the deck back together before the older blonde holds out a hand with a “let me”, expertly cutting the deck in two and shuffling, cutting, and shuffling the deck again so quickly that he almost doesn’t catch it. 

 

There’s a quick game of rock-paper-scissors to decide turn order, and...it takes maybe six turns before Ange is utterly obliterated. The other girl manages to balance card effects so that her ace monster almost always comes back to the field once destroyed, gaining power every time it does so. The girl, with brown hair and simple clothes, lets out a low kihihihihihi as she prepares the final attack. It’s a massacre, with Ange barely having time to fight back.

 

...On second thought, choosing somebody older who’d go easy on her would’ve been a better idea. He remembers a moment later that he’d brought his own deck, and while he forgets what exactly it was, he definitely recalls having a lot of fun challenging the other boys with it at recess when he was twelve or so. Maybe it’ll do better against the brunette than Ange’s. 

 

“Here, Ange. Try my old deck,” he says gently after reaching in and finding it in his bag. She smiles, and as the older woman is once again handed the other girl’s deck to shuffle, he clumsily shuffles it, points at the girl from across the table, and grins. “That deck’s gone up against a lot when I was younger. It won’t go down that easily!”

 

Ange wins rock-paper-scissors and goes first, drawing her hand. She looks it over for a moment before turning around to glare at him, shoving the cards at him. It’s sudden, and he has no idea why she’s doing it, until he gently takes the cards, and. Oh. His starting hand is a sexy nurse, sexy catgirl, sexy……….harpy-dominatrix thing, and a couple of spells. 

 

In hindsight maybe the deck he made in middle school was a bad idea. Though the cards are pretty nice-looking. 

 

“Onee-chan! Stop being creepy!” 

 

“Hey! If Ange gets help, then so does Maria, uuu!” At this point, both original combatants are angry, with Maria frowning at the siblings, and Ange glaring at him, refusing to touch his cards further. The blonde woman finally gives a sly grin before putting her hand on Maria’s shoulder and meeting their gazes. There’s something chilling in her eyes, Battler thinks, but he’s more focused on damage control at this point. 

 

“Do you not want to play against her anymore?” He tries his best to be calming; the younger redhead can be tricky to calm down from a temper tantrum once it gets in swing, so he tries his best to not aggravate the situation.

 

“Not with that deck!” She huffs, crossing her arms. He’s seen this before from her-she’ll calm down in a matter of minutes, provided he doesn’t try to get her to do whatever it is she doesn’t want to do.

 

“Then I’ll play in your place!” Now, to switch his opponent to somebody other than a kid. He’s definitely not playing that deck against the brunette if he can help it. The woman meets his gaze again, and then speaks up. 

 

“I’d be more than happy to play for Maria, if you’ll be my opponent.” It seems the woman’s deduced a bit of the reasoning behind the sudden change of opponents, and Battler finally places the smile and expression; it’s like a cat, about to pounce on some unsuspecting prey. But then again, fighting with an outdated deck full of busty monsters against a woman so confident that she’s almost reclining in her seat still probably doesn’t rank anywheres near his top ten “Ushiromiya Battler’s fuckups with women” list, so he smiles, taking Ange’s place.

 

Pointing his finger at her from across the table and and declaring “YOU’RE ON!”, loud enough to be heard, but not enough to disturb the nearby players, proooobably puts what’s about to happen on said list of top ten fuckups with women, but it’s to avenge Ange’s honor. 

 

Probably. 

 

Worst case scenario, he loses miserably, and Ange laughs at him. 

 

“Loser of the last match gets to decide turn order. Your choice?” There’s still that irritating air of arrogance in her voice as she idly puts her hands on Maria’s deck, shuffling them without even glancing down at her hands. Battler files this in the back of his mind as a power move as he glances at his hand, placing one card down on the tabletop, poised to attack. 

 

It’s the sexy nurse. Ange groans. There’s a spell he sets to use later before ending his turn. The nurse has an ability that allows her to raise attack power, just for the battle, in exchange for a chunk of his life. The woman keeps smiling, along with Maria, and after a second, Battler decides to adjust his posture, resting his chin and cheek on his hands, idly tapping his cards with a finger. The woman shrugs and draws a card, and. He didn’t really think the grin could get worse, but it  _ does, _ revealing pointed fangs behind her lips, stretched beyond reasonable limits of human flesh. 

 

“Are you reaaaady?” She asks, quickly slapping a monster down on the field. She taps it and glances at him, and it takes Battler a moment to remember what she’s doing (probably not a great sign on both the ‘he stands a chance to beat her’ and ‘Battler Ushiromiya actually is good at this game’ fronts): declaring the activation some sort of card effect. He waves his hand to let her know that he’s not going to try to activate anything to negate it (not that he can, anyways; the spell he has isn’t anything that is particularly useful for destroying monsters or negating anything). She picks up her deck, sifts through it, and picks out a card, shuffling once she does. There’s a combination of card effects; she discards a couple cards and draws several more before playing a spell to summon something, whipping out some sort of strong-looking monster...which is promptly destroyed to summon a stronger monster...which she then uses to revive the monster she sacrificed in order to summon said monster.

 

The combo is carried out fairly quickly, almost like she can do it in her sleep. It’s impressive; her field is already loaded with two fairly powerful monsters, and she still has a number of cards in her hand that can probably pull off a different combo if he manages to destroy them. She lazily swipes her finger forward while resting on one of the monsters to attack, and he grins again. 

 

“I’ll be activating my nice little nurse’s ability now. I take damage, but she enough gets attack power to destroy your monster.” 

 

“Are you suuuure of that?” She picks up the card from the table, almost shoving it in his face.  _ If this card battles, your opponent cannot activate cards or effects until the end of the damage step _ . Oh. Can’t use her ability to boost attack if that ability is in place. She cackles, and he sheepishly takes the card off the field, losing a good chunk of health. The second monster is free to attack him now, taking off enough that he’s lost more than half his life. 

 

She ends her turn with that, luckily. He draws again...but there’s nothing really that can help him. He sets a couple cards and ends his turn. The woman plays a card, swapping one of her monsters for another, then quickly attacking his facedown. It’s destroyed, and the second monster then goes in for an attack-enough that one more attack is more than enough to spell defeat. And that one more attack is coming from the first mons-wait a minute.

 

“Stop cheating. That monster already attacked.” The second the words leave his mouth, he knows he made a mistake-the woman only laughs again, shoving the card in his face:  _ This card can make a second attack during each battle phase _ . 

 

“How do I know that’s not banned?” Honestly, if he was just fighting a normal person, he’d probably just laugh it off and let it go, but this woman is grating on his nerves. The smile, the arrogance,  _ everything _ she does ticks him off. “Furthermore, how do I know that your combo was legal? You could just be hiding the effects from m-” He’s cut off as she slides him her entire side of the field, still not fully cleaned up. Her expression is back to normal, almost exasperated. 

 

“Everything I’ve done is game-legal. Check my cards, check the online banlist.” She sits back, then glances back at Maria. The young girl had been striking up a bit of idle conversation with Ange, both of them ignoring the scene that had been going on, apparently leaving the last match as water under the bridge. A couple of cards had been laid out in front of Ange, and they were talking happily about it. He watches her out of the corner of his eye as he looks over the cards played, but she doesn’t do anything suspicious; the woman offers a comment to them after a moment, but it’s more advice to the pair than anything. Battler runs a quick glance-over at the cards she was using, and there’s nothing wrong that he can see on the surface; all the combinations are from effects clearly stated on all the cards. 

 

Hmmm. He goes through his cards as discreetly as he can when her attention shifts to Ange and Maria, checking names, effects and attack powers. There’s nothing that can outright beat her monsters, aside from the sexy nurse-but even then, her effect isn’t something that can easily defend against multiple waves of attacks, and she’s got that monster that can kill it without activating that ‘sacrifice life points for attack power’ effect. There’s not much chance of him being able to defeat her as he is now. 

 

So for the rest of the duration, he focuses on chatting with Ange and Maria, trying his best to ignore the other woman at the table. He’ll fish something together from the cards he has at home, come back next week, and show her that Battler Ushiromiya is not somebody to be trifled with! 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


“Do you want to go to the game shop again?” He tries to ask Ange casually, almost like he hasn’t been looking up counters to that specific deck that woman used in the past week. His deck is fairly old, but getting crushed like that while she wore that smirk on her face the entire time was more than enough for him rummage through his old card binder, looking for something that might be able to counter her (alas, the busty angel monsters would unfortunately not work). He has a bit of a collection from grade school, mostly from trading with friends and getting discounted collections at secondhand stores back in the day. He’d almost forgotten he had half the cards he does, and it takes almost an hour to sift through everything, pocketing anything that looks like it would be useful, before finding a small collection of a specific archetype tucked away in the back of a binder. They’re dark-type monsters, with cool-looking designs; each is themed after some sort of piece on a chessboard, though the newer ones seem to lack that motif. 

 

He likes chess, and he’s got a surprising number of those cards in his collection, so he decides to try and build around them. 

 

“Only if you don’t embarrass yourself fighting Beato again.”

 

“Beato?” There’s a pause, and. Oh, that was the woman’s name. “Don’t worry, I won’t embarrass myself this time!” After all, he’s got a better-built deck now, one that can probably take her down, ihihihi. 

 

Both Maria and Beato are there when they arrive, though preoccupied: there’s somebody sitting opposite them with long blonde hair, most of it tied back in a ponytail. Ange makes a beeline towards the trio, trying to get a sense of what’s happening, and Battler follows along after a moment. Once closer, it’s clear that Maria is the one fighting; Beato is at her side, and the brunette occasionally taps a couple cards in her hand and the field, double-checking with her if what she’s thinking is the best move in this situation. His sister takes up the side opposite Beato’s and next to the ponytailed blonde, chin on hands. 

 

Since he definitely doesn’t want to sit anywhere near Beato, he plunks down a decent distance away from the unfamiliar blonde, but still on the same side of the table. The action is noticed immediately by the person, who glances over at the duo. 

 

“Ah. Siblings? Nice to meet you. I’m Lion, one of the people who oversees this meetup.” They place their hand facedown on the table once they notice him and Ange in order to stand up and give a small bow, smiling. There’s a weird resemblance between them and Beato, probably in the face, and somehow their movements and mannerisms seem similar.

 

“I’m Battler. This is my sister, Ange. Are you also siblings…?” He jerks his head towards Beato. 

 

“No, just friends.” Lion shoots a small smile towards Beato before sitting down, picking up their hand and finishing their turn, setting a couple of cards facedown. It seemed like they were backed into a corner, but he manages to sneak a peek at Beato, who’s tasked with keeping track of health. Lion was doing fine in that regard, despite the fact that Maria looked like she had an upper hand. The turn switches to Maria, and then he sees why; she has a decent number of strong monsters, but the second she attacks, Lion activates a card that sends a massive portion of their deck to the graveyard, bringing out an extremely powerful dragon monster in the process, stronger than anything Maria has on her field. She can’t do anything to it, so she switches her monsters to defense. 

 

They then almost completely wipe the board, getting rid of those monsters that gave him so much trouble last week in a single fell swoop. It’s enough to make Beato furrow her brow and glance over Maria’s hand again, trying to find something that can beat Lion’s monster, before motioning to a couple cards in her hand. She manages to bring one of those powerhouses out, and uses its effect to get rid of their dragon, but has to end her turn there. 

 

Next turn, Lion manages to bring out another dragon, using its effect and the number of monsters already in the grave to summon it for free, going after Maria’s monsters again and claiming the game. 

 

They gently gather their cards and make to leave after thanking her for the match, but Ange grabs them by the leg of their pants before they can leave the table. “Can I try your deck?” Lion pauses a moment, then nods after she promises to return it once the match is up. 

 

The battle begins again, with Ange as Maria’s opponent this time, and Lion at Ange’s shoulder. Perfect. Battler grins, slamming his modified deck on the table, and pointing at Beato.

 

“I’m been practicing, and changed my deck! Prepare to lose!” 

 

“Hooooh? Did you finally choose monsters based off something besides cup size?” There’s that cocky grin again, but he’s more confident of his chances this time. She reaches into her bag, and pulls out a deck. It’s different than what she was using last week, something he can tell immediately by the design of the card sleeves; Maria’s card sleeves were emblazoned with stuffed animals, but Beato’s are completely black, save for a single golden butterfly on them. He wins rock-paper-scissors, and quickly starts building up his forces, putting one thing on the field, and a couple cards facedown.

 

She’s a bit less cocky now, but still plays a card, summoning two monsters that she sacrifices to bring out a stronger one, that she then uses to attack his monster. It’s a completely different deck from last time: while Maria used stuffed animal-based monsters, this one is literally based off of demons from hell. He’s a bit surprised; there wasn’t a mass combo like she played against him last time, though his monster is still destroyed and he takes a decent chunk of damage. Her turn ends with her setting setting a couple cards, and he then draws...and finally gets something. It’s a decently strong card, but that’s not important-he’s able to summon both it and another one in a single turn, sacrificing both of them to bring out something strong enough to defeat Beato’s card, which he then does, and then goes to destroy her monster.

 

...that is, if Beato hadn’t flipped over one of her set cards, destroying the monster he’d just summoned. Dammit. He sighs as she draws, bringing out another powerful monster. Both of them attack him directly, and he loses. Again. 

 

“You’re getting better! Maybe you’ll be able to beat me in aboooout, I don’t know, a thousand years or so.” She’s leaning back in her seat a little, and he realizes after a moment that she’s teasing him now, judging from the tone and exaggerated way she’s fanning herself with her cards. Better than the outright mocking of last time, he supposes, though it still triggers than latent desire in him to get back at her for it. The noise has Lion moving from overseeing Maria and Ange’s duel over to his side, hands held politely behind their back as they stand next to the table, looking at the game. Beato immediately straightens at their presence, posture shifting from a lord overseeing their underlings to the type that fit more in line with an exceedingly fancy dinner. 

 

They glance over his hand after a moment before asking permission to sift through his deck. He’s a bit apprehensive at first, but Beato cackles. It’s awful, drawing out for a couple seconds as she slaps the tabletop with her palm.

 

“They’re trying to help you. If you want to stand a chance, take it! Otherwise yo-” her statement is cut off in the middle by her yelping and slapping Lion’s hand away. They’d started moving when Beato opened her mouth, and by the end of the statement, she was rubbing her thigh angrily. “Knock off the pinching!”

 

“I apologize on Beatrice’s behalf. If she gives you more trouble, feel free to ask me to step in.” 

 

“So you let them pinch you? Must be a pret~ty nice relationship you’ve got.”

 

“I don’t let them!” There’s a huff, and she pouts. It’s a weird shift, from the woman who was taunting him no less than a couple minutes ago to...well, somebody who looks more like a 5-year-old being told they couldn’t play hookey to watch TV. “No matter how on my guard I am, they always slip past me. It’s the same with all their friends...not even their sister or friends or  _ coworkers _  escape it.” 

 

“Will is as rude as you are. You’ll notice that I don’t pinch people that are  _ polite _ .” Lion gently picks up his deck, ruffling through the cards before moving to sit down. The cards are slowly sorted, with monsters in one pile, spells and the like in the other. Their hands are graceful, making sure not to accidentally damage any of the sleeveless cards. “Your monster effects play off each other decently, though how many you play of what monster should be tweaked a little. But your non-monsters...it feels like a hate deck. They’re all spells specifically designed to fight a specific archetype.”

 

So maybe he’d stuffed his deck to the gills with cards specifically to fight Maria’s deck. Sure. It was legal, right?!? Just like Beato’s ridiculous combinations. Who, speaking of, begins to cackle, hand slapping the table as she doubles over laughing. “Let me gueeeeeess, beast monsters? Like the kind I was using last week?” 

 

“I’d suggest switching out those cards for ones that more directly support your deck. Hate cards are better suited for a side deck, so you can switch them in to deal with specific archetypes without changing the core of your fighting style.” The deck is handed back to him, and the person handing it over promptly goes over to pinch Beato, snapping her out of a laughing fit. She rubs her hip and glares, probably trying to figure out how to get back at them later. 

 

Lion nods, advice given, and heads back over to Ange and Maria, who appeared to be having a blast with the borrowed deck. 

 

“Side deck…?” He grumbles, trying to keep it low enough that Beato doesn’t hear, but she perks up as the words leave him. Dammit.

 

“You’re given three decks in this game: a core deck, a side deck, and an extra deck. You already know about the extra deck, which is where you put your powerhouse cards with certain summon conditions. The side is where you put cards that are specific-use that you’re allowed to swap into your deck after every match. If you know you’re playing against Maria’s beast deck, but aren’t positive she’ll use it, you’d want to put anti-beast cards in your side deck. That way, you’re not out of luck if she plays something different.” There’s a holier-than-thou look from Beato that more or less screams ‘isn’t this obvious?’, but he swallows his pride for just a moment to hear her out. 

 

“Ah.” There’s a moment as he realizes that he hasn’t exactly brought any other cards with him. The blonde sighs as she reaches into her bag, taking a couple of cards out of it, and flicking them down onto the table. She snatches about 5 of them, drawing them from their sleeves, and hands them to him. 

 

“Give them back at the end of the day. And bring your own next time.” It takes him a moment to note that the cards were probably from her own side deck-the other cards are probably cards that would only work in her specific build, not the typical one-size-fits-all cards she just handed over.

 

He blinks. 

 

What just happened? Beato just loaned him a couple cards, yes, but...she was supposed to be awful, right? She just spent the entire past meetup being a jackass (he kinda deserved it, yes, but that isn’t the point!). Why isn’t she rubbing it in his face more?

 

She shrugs.

 

“There’s only so much you can enjoy drawing out an unbalanced fight.” So that’s how it is, then. She’s giving him better cards so that she can laugh harder when he falls. 

 

“It’s not unbalanced!”

 

“Then prove it and win the next fight.”

 

“I don’t need to rely on anything other than the cards in front of me to beat you.” He glares at her, but she’s staring just down at him from across the table, bored and stifling a yawn.

 

“If you’re not interested in getting better at this, than I’m not interested in dueling you.” 

 

Well then. 

 

He weighs his options: either get into a fight with her over this, or go along with it, and get a chance to actually show her that he can beat her. He’ll accept that maybe she’s interested in playing with him, but he’ll turn that logic on her head and wipe that smirk off her face! 

 

Her resting her hand on her chin is enough to get him to start rifling through his deck, taking out some of the anti-beast cards he put in, and swapping in a few of Beato’s. They’re fairly common staple cards, and it’s fairly easy to swap a couple in. The deck is shuffled once he’s done, and Beato is challenged for a rematch.

 

She gives that obnoxious, flesh-defying, toothy grin at him as he draws his starting hand. And then promptly decimates him with the skill and knowledge of a professional blackjack dealer, pulling out a couple combos and keeping her stronger monsters alive long enough to destroy any passing chance he had at resisting while simultaneously building her forces.

 

Then, still grinning, she taps a couple of cards to activate various effects, before giving him a look that’s some sort of mixture of triumph and pride. It’s a card he’s not sure on the effect, so he picks it up, glances between her and the card for a moment, then squints before pointing at her, locking eyes as if he’s an attorney in those courtroom dramas.

 

“I demand a rule check! There’s no way that there’s a card with your name on it!” The card in front of him looks legit, yes, but it’s got the name Beatrice on it and yeah maybe there’s another card she whipped out a second ago with Dante in the name, but this just seems really over-the-top.

 

“Jealous that nobody would want to make a card with your name on it? Kiyahahahah!” She’s wheezing with laughter now as he keeps staring at it before picking up the card to get a closer look. The card’s art is everything Beato is not: elegant, refined, and dignified, hands raised to the air as if to embrace some regal deity, with “Beatrice, the Eternal Lady” printed in gold at the top. 

 

While he hasn’t exactly known her for very long, he has a feeling she runs this deck entirely due to this card. Lion meanders over a moment later taking a glance at the commotion before confirming that this card is, in fact, legal, dashing every single hope and dream he has against the cruel rocks of capitalist trading card game fate. Which only makes her laugh harder, earning a pinch on the ass from Lion. 

 

“So you’re telling me that you basically chose your entire fighting style...because of a card sharing your name?” At this, she huffs, crossing her arms and frowns, more exaggerated than even those characters on the kid shows Ange watches. 

 

“I’m not  _ that _ boorish! It’s from Dante! Even if you haven’t read it, he’s referenced in a ton of anime!” He  _ has _ read Dante, actually. Yeah, he likes modern works a little more, and the archaic Japanese that the translators  _ insisted _ on using in the copy he read was a tad obnoxious, but it was a good story. Even if roughly half of it was the author condemning every person who had personally wronged him to their own individual section of hell, it was still an influential work. So of course he’d read it. Along with the Convivio. And La Vita Nuova. As well as De Monarchia. And, well, the rest of Dante’s works.

 

……….The Divine Comedy got packaged with a ton of his other translated works inside the book, okay? He didn’t want to leave the book only halfway read.

 

“If you’re really looking to play up your symbolism, you should’ve changed your name to Virgil!” He flicks an index finger at her, lounging back and checking the clock as she reacts. The time catches him by surprise; there’s maybe half an hour before the meetup ends. He could’ve  _ sworn _ it was supposed to be earlier-it only feels like he’s been in here fifteen minutes or so.

 

The phrase ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ comes to mind, and...fine, maybe there’s a grain of truth to it. She keeps kicking his ass, but he feels that he’s maybe getting a little better, bit by bit. And to be honest, fighting her like that isn’t exactly the journey through hell that he joked about a second ago; it’s fun. 

 

“Hoooooh? Just for that, I’m not going easy on you next round!” 

 

“What, so that near-loss just now was faked?”

 

“Hmph. If I so wanted to, you would have been history before you made your second move!”  

 

“That’s just because your cards are stronger!” She gives a frown, pursing her lips and closing her eyes for a second. There’s a weird wavering in her expression, but it’s easily forgotten as she steels herself, softly exhaling before responding. 

 

“If you say that, you’ve already lost the match! Are you really admitting you’re worse than me, Battleeeeeer?” There’s a smile on her face now, not exactly the face-splitting smirk from earlier. Something softer. And it must be contagious, because he can feel the corners of his own mouth turn up of their own accord as he reaches for his cards.

 

Dammit, it’s all useless! But if she thinks she can just trample all over his field, she’s got another thing coming.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


When he comes in next time with Ange, there’s a card tin in front of Beato. It’s one of the standard ones, the kind of lopsided metal octagon that you’d get when buying multiple packs of cards at once. And, judging from the small window into the box, it’s full of cards. 

 

“Where the hell did you even get all these?” Packs are fairly expensive-it’s what, 130 yen for 5 cards? So he kinda raises an eyebrow in both senses of the term at the cache in front of them.

 

Lion’s nearby, and helpfully fills in.

 

“We got a massive shipment of cards a couple years ago to the store, by accident. We couldn’t sell them all, so we settled on letting people borrow the cards if they didn’t have their own deck.” Their hand pats Beato’s shoulder a second later, giving her a no-nonsense look. “You’d better return them when you’re done.”

 

“Since when have I broken my promises?” She only lasted about a minute in his vicinity this time before switching over to that one awful grin. A new record. Lion just sighs and heads over to another group in the room, who look like newbies. They don’t even make an attempt to pinch her; maybe they realized that trying to get her to stop doing those creepy expressions was about as possible as her suddenly sprouting wings and flying. 

 

“So, what’s the reason for the cards again?” The creepy expression intensifies, so much that he  _ knows _ that he’s just walked into a verbal trap.

 

“You keep blaming your losses on your archetype being weak to mine!” He didn’t think that her grin could possibly stretch wider across her face than it already did, but it’s fine. She probably only broke, say, three major laws of anatomy there. “Soooooo, I took the trouble of borrowing this! All cards in it are of the same archetype. That way you can’t make any excuses when you lose miserably to me! Kiyahahahaha!”

 

Thanks, Beato.

 

“Uu. Maria wants to try!” He’d almost forgotten about Maria and his sister, both of them watching the pair, eyes locked on the tin. Beato gestures to the former, calling her over to the blonde’s side of the table.

 

“If I helped you, do you think you’d be able to beat him?” There’s that cocky, competitive gleam to her eyes as she rests her palm on Maria’s shoulder that makes him want to wipe it off her face in the best way possible. 

 

Said best way being kicking her ass at children’s card games. 

 

The brunette quickly gives her an almost matching creepy smile, before Ange joins the duo on the other side, glancing at Beato, who’s started to open the tin and is distributing cards between the two of them. 

 

“Ange, don’t you want to help your older brother?” He tries to coax her over, speaking softly like to a cat. 

 

“I want to be on the winning side, though!” Betrayal! Betrayal of the highest degree! He crosses his arms and almost comically pouts, trying to get the sympathies of this  _ blood traitor _ , abandoning her precious brother for this...this witch! Beato snickers as she continues doling out the available cards, splitting them evenly between himself and her, a steady  _ thwip-thwip-thwip _ as she divides them.

 

“How do you know she’s going to win?! She said it herself, she chalks it all up to the engine her deck runs being better!” Yes, maybe she  _ did _ win every single match he’d challenged her with thus far, but really, that type of thing is easy if you know how to play your deck right and have a good one! It’s a good thing that she’s challenged him to a mirror match like this, so he can challenge her on even ground, and claim his rightful victory.

 

Beato finishes dividing the cards, sliding his half over to his side. He takes a quick look: there’s at least three copies of everything, so he can run the maximum number of each card allowed if he so chooses. She has exactly the same cards as he does, so the deciding factor in this match is how the cards play against each other; there must be a total of at least twenty different cards in front of him, making it so that fitting them all in the 40-card minimum would be a difficult decision. The three on the other side of the table are talking amongst themselves, talking about what would be best to include, leaving him by himself. 

 

Which is fine! Beato’s getting deck advice from a 9-year-old and an 8-year-old. It’ll be easy to beat her like this. It’s not like he  _ needs _ his sister’s help. Even if the conversation that they’re having looks like fun. He returns his glance to the cards in front of him, reading their abilities and attack powers. They’re pretty simple, in all honesty. All the effects can search, power up, etcetera, cards of their own archetype, and there’s not really any way he can think of to use the cards in front of him to build some ridiculous 40-card combo or anything like that. So he chooses some of the ones that look like they’ve got useful effects, a couple of the miscellaneous support cards in front of him, and tosses them together. 

 

Even though he’s done, the trio at the other end aren’t. They’re talking among themselves more, methodically placing some of the cards next to each other and tapping a couple of them in succession to show potential combinations, mostly ignoring him. 

 

There’s something awkward about finishing before them, so he decides to glance over his deck again but not changing anything. It almost feels like he’s back in school, anxious because he’d finished up his exam quicker than everybody else did and had the nagging suspicion that he was missing some important concept on it that everybody else knew about.

 

Honestly, why were they taking so long? It was weird.

 

After a while, they finally assemble the cards together, shuffling it and setting it on the table opposite him. There’s rock-paper-scissors to decide who goes first before Beato draws a couple cards, glancing over at her allies and showing her hand to them before making any move.

 

There’s a small smile from all three of them before quickly managing a short combo. While it’s nothing powerful, it’s able to keep him from doing anything major for his next move, as they continue to build momentum, swapping monsters for more powerful ones until he finds himself losing. 

 

Naturally, he calls it sheer luck and asks for a rematch, mentally noting what combinations she used. 

 

“Hoooh? Luck? After all I did to eliminate all other variables from the equation?” He’s tempted to call Lion, who he notices is helping out a couple of people on the fringes of the room, maybe hoping that one of their ass pinches can save him from Beato’s face, which is once again twisting into some awful caricature of a grin.

 

“That was just one match!”

 

“Beato, can I fight him?” Maria is tugging on the hem of her sleeve now, and in the span of a second her expression changes from that smirk to a small smile as she shuffles the cards and hands them over to her. 

 

Really, Maria? She’s making him fight  _ Maria _ ?

 

“I’ll take her on if you want, but you should know I can win against her, Beato!” He gives a grin, making a mental note to go easy on her. 

  
  
  


He erases that mental note five turns later, after she demolishes him in less time than the first game. But he’s a good sport, and doesn’t challenge her to a rematch. Even though his pride is basically in tatters at this point, shredded to bits by the merciless tips of cardboard trading cards. 

 

To add insult to injury, Ange smiles and asks Maria if  _ she _ could have a turn fighting him. And, well, being a good, responsible big brother, he accepts.

 

Ange trashes him in less than ten turns.

 

Honestly, what is up with that!?! They’re probably using the same cards, but even with that stipulation, he’s been losing three for three today. It’s got to be luck. There’s no way deckbuilding could account for losing  _ this _ much, he thinks as Ange asks for another match, mouth upturned in a smile. 

 

Well, maybe another match will prove to them that it’s just luck that brought them this far. 

 

Seven matches and a single victory (thank you, card game gods) later, Beato and Maria temporarily leave to grab food, leaving him and Ange to the cards. 

 

What’s weird is that Beato didn’t really tease him like she normally did when Ange and Maria were facing him; there weren’t any taunts, or jabs, or attempts at communication at all, aside from an occasional ‘you almost forgot to activate this card’s effect this turn’ to the girls. 

 

After a couple minutes, he flags down Lion, discreetly. There’s no cackling terror here right now, so he feels it’s safe to expose the deepest secrets of his heart and maybe, just maybe ask for a little help. They thumb through the cards he holds out before returning them.

 

“You could ask her for help, you know. She’s better at this game than me.”

 

“She’s awful, though!” There’s a sigh from Lion when he says that, their shoulders relaxing a little as they smile. He has a nagging feeling in the back of his head that tells him that if he goes and earnestly asks her for help, she might actually respond in earnest like she did last time, but for now he’d rather seek out Lion.

 

“I’ll agree with you on that, but if she was really that irredeemable, you wouldn’t be playing against her.” Well, they’ve got him on that one. “It sounds more like you’ve got yourself a rival instead.”

 

Slowly, Lion glances at the deck of cards on top of the table, picking up Battler’s deck. “And it sounds like she’s already trying to get you to improve, in her own way. Try using the deck she made against me.”

 

“...Are you sure she’s not going to complain?” A picture is worth a thousand words, and he feels like if he took a picture of Lion’s current expression, the associated caption would be something along the lines of ‘if she tries to complain, she will get a firm talking-to about how these cards are for everybody to use since they are shop property, in addition to a firm pinch on the ass.’”

 

So he picks up hers, rifling through it a little before shuffling it. Ange watches, trying to calculate whether him using Beato’s deck actually raises his chances of winning, before sitting down next to Lion. 

 

Betrayal, once again...!

 

It’s fine, though. He’ll win this time. 

 

...and not because Beato’s deck is better!!!

 

This time around, it’s surprisingly easy to get monsters out on the field, and keep momentum. Lion knows what they’re doing-anytime a potential combination of effects comes up, they play it perfectly, but Battler’s field just has too much momentum and field presence for them to overcome, eventually resulting in a loss. As they sweep the deck Battler made off the table to shuffle it, he decides to maybe make a little conversation. They seem nice, and he’s curious about a couple things. 

 

“...You’re Beato’s friend, right?”

 

“We’ve been friends since we were children.” There’s a sigh at the end of the sentence that sounds an awful amount similar to the word  _ unfortunately _ . 

 

“Why does she even come here if all she does is act like a jackass?” There’s a stifled chuckle from Lion as they begin the next game, summoning a monster and playing a couple effects. 

 

“Maria, mostly.”

 

“...Maria?”

 

“They’re close friends, and her mom works long hours. Beato keeps her company.” Lion sets a couple cards down, ending their turn. 

 

“So she’s basically a babysitter?”

 

“Think of it as spending time with a friend. Maria really likes duel monsters.” There’s a pause as Battler activates a couple effects, summoning a couple of monsters and clearing Lion’s side of the field. “Are you noticing any differences between how easy it is to gain advantage with the way Beato’s deck is constructed compared to your own?” 

 

“...Kinda.”  _ Yes _ , maybe it was a  _ little _ easier to chain effects and summon a bunch of stuff using Beato’s deck. But the fact that he was doing well was luck! It has nothing to do with Beato  _ supposedly _ being better at deckbuilding. Absolutely nothing.

 

“I suspect she was  _ trying _ to show you how to deckbuild, but got...sidetracked.” 

 

Sidetracked by letting 9-year-olds kick his ass, they mean. 

 

“Deckbuild?” Ange speaks up from next to Lion. 

 

“Choosing what cards to use. Battler’s got a lot of cards selected that only activate if you already have sufficient presence on the board, and doesn’t have much cohesion overall.” The blonde points to a couple of cards in their hand, out of sight of Battler, showing them to Ange as demonstration. 

 

They chat for a couple more minutes after that-Battler manages to win handily for the second time, and Lion spreads all the cards from the deck the redhead made on the table, picking up specific ones and sliding them away, explaining why  _ this _ one doesn’t have much cohesion and would ideally be replaced by  _ this _ one. And after a couple minutes, Battler joins them, pointing to a specific card, asking how it would best fit in.

 

It continues like that for a while, up until  _ a certain somebody _ comes back, smiling and almost bouncing in her step as she notices the trio in the back corner, grin widening as she leans over the table, supporting the weight of her upper body by resting an elbow on the table and a hand on her chin. When all is said and done, she’s viewing a deck that’s had maybe a third of its core contents changed, hopefully for the better. 

 

He tries to shoo her away. She stays there, glancing down at the cards on the table.

 

“Battler revising his deck? Am I dreamiiiing?”

 

“Weren’t you the one who said that you wouldn’t be interested unless I improved myself?” There’s an almost...pause to her expression, before she gives an exaggerated pout and sits herself down.

 

He scoops up the cards on the table, shuffling them and sitting next to Lion as Maria and Beato sit opposite him. There’s a glint to her eyes and expression, challenging him. And Ushiromiya Battler doesn’t back down from a challenge.

 

And, surprisingly, this is a challenge he can actually take on. He’s got a good starting hand, and is able to match Beato on even ground. Every move she makes is matched by an equal one of his, every attack on his life equaled by one on hers. She’s less confident now, her grin replaced with a tense smile. 

 

That gleam in her eyes stays, though, and even intensifies as he gets her on the ropes. His field is stocked enough and his hand bulky enough that if she can’t do anything major this turn, she’ll be eliminated his next turn.

 

“You can do, it, Beato!” Maria’s patting her on the shoulder, eyes locked on the blonde. And almost as a response, she grins, closing her eyes as she puts her hand on the top of her deck. He’s pretty sure he’s seen something like this before in some anime, where the protagonist closes their eyes and magically draws some perfect situational card to let them single handedly win against somebody with, like, a dozen cards on their field or something. Her expression wavers a little when she actually sees what she draws, but it solidifies a half second later when she glances at Maria.

 

“Take this, Ushiromiya Battler! The attack of the ruler of the burning abyss!” She lays down a couple of cards, summoning a couple to her field, and taking out a couple of his monsters in the process. But at the end of things, it’s not much to eliminate his advantage. 

 

But Maria is watching the board intently, glancing between it and the woman next to her, still silently cheering her on. 

 

And, well...even though Beato is kinda a dick, Maria isn’t. For the most part. 

 

“You think you can beat me with that!?! Take this!” There’s a couple of cards in his hand that can win the match right here and now. But Maria doesn’t know that, as he maybe, just maybe, doesn’t play them. Beato leans forwards, raising an eyebrow juuuust out of sight of Maria as he moves to the combat phase of the turn. He does all he can do with his current field, which is enough to get Beato down to her last bits of life, but not enough to defeat her. 

 

“I believe in you, Beato! You can still win, uuu!” Maria’s eyes are wide, glancing between her friend and the table, gripping her free hand. It’s this action that gets her to slowly change her stance and posture from something akin to worried to more relaxed. 

 

“What, Beato? Don’t tell me you’ll be defeated this easily!” There’s a smile as she leans back after glancing at her audience, closing her eyes as she rubs her temples with her free hand, fingers ruffling through her bangs before she finally settles back into her seat, that smile not quite the usual ‘lording it over’ one, but getting there. 

 

“Are you saying you think you can defeat me? You’re a thousand years too early for that! Kiyahahaha!” She draws again, and that grin widens as she slams that card down onto that table, activating a combo. It’s a small one, but enough that she can regain a bit of momentum, filling her side of the board with the deck’s ace monster and getting rid of all but one monster before it’s Battler’s turn again. 

 

And, well, he ‘forgets’ that there’s a couple of cards he could use in this situation to shut down Beato. Maria is glancing at the board, still insisting to Beato that she should be able to win next turn if she plays her cards right. And, well, Maria isn’t a liar, is she? 

 

Lion just glances at his hand and sighs, rolling their eyes a little as he plays...perhaps not the best card in his situation, but enough to make it look like he’s trying. 

 

Beato takes her next turn, and using a couple of cards, manages to decimate his field, forcing him to lose. And Maria and Ange? Their eyes light up, both of them congratulating her on her hard-won victory. She smiles to them, standing up and scooping up the few cards on her side of the field, walking  _ completely inconspicuously _ over to his side of the table and glancing over at his hand before shuffling her hand back into her deck. He gives a sheepish grin as Lion gives her a knowing look. There’s a pause from her as she surveys everybody at the table, before speaking.

 

“You fought well. As expected of my rival.” He blinks as she stretches a hand out across the table. This is new.

 

“Thanks.” He shakes it awkwardly, meeting her eyes. Ah, right, this is the first time he’s been able to beat her. Kinda. 

 

“Uuu. Just because she’s a rival doesn't mean she’s going to lose to you!”

 

“On the contrary, Maria!” There’s one of those softer smiles from her, and, well he doesn't want to call it  _ cute _ , but... “A game isn’t fun if there isn’t risk of losing. A rival should be your equal, else you won’t be able to push yourself to defeat them.” Okay Beato, message understood! Next time he fights her, she’s getting that one-turn-kill that she very much deserves. 

 

“Ihihihihi! Does this mean you’ll stop that cackling?” 

 

“Whaaaat, this? Kiyahahaha! I can’t help it! When you make that one face whenever you’re losing, it just slips out!”

 

They keep bantering like this for a while, and...okay, maybe it’s enjoyable. Just a little. He’s figured out how to refute her teasing, making less obnoxious and more enjoyable, like they’re friends taking verbal jabs at each other, only serving to make the game more fun to play.  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Before the next week rolls around, he looks around online for card lists for his deck. It’s an old archetype, and while there’s been cards released for it since he stopped collecting in middle school, they seem to be pretty abundant and cheap, and he makes a note to try and see if anybody in the weekly meetup would be willing to trade for them. 

 

There’s also a bunch of nerds online saying that the archetype sucks. Those people are wrong. Probably.

 

Issue is, Ange gets a little sick the day before the meetup. She’s contagious enough that she got kept home from school for the day, so her heading to the card shop is out of the question. When he brings up that he’s heading there, she gives a chuckle, surrounded by a veritable fortress of blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals. It’s almost like one of those old spot-the-thing picture books he owned when he was younger: he can almost see the title above the picture, captioned  _ Can You Spot The Ange In This Pile Of Stuffed Bears? _

 

“Have fun playing with Beato.”

 

“W-what? I’m just going to defend your honor! She’s still got that victory against you that first time we went, and...” okay, maybe that’s pushing it a little, but still! Beato still technically has a perfect record against him, and he can’t let it stand!

 

“Tell Sakutarou I said hi. And enjoy your date with Beato.”

 

She laughs when his face turns red a moment later, stammering that it’s not a date. 

  
  
  
  


When he ends up in the shop later, he finds Beato in the corner, talking to Maria as her back faces the rest of the room. As he approaches, Maria takes out a couple of small ceramic figures from her jacket pocket. They’re rabbits, each of them playing some sort of instrument, four of them in total. 

 

“You brought the Chiester sisters to school with you?” There’s a softness in her voice that wasn’t ever there when he fought her as she glances at the ceramic bunnies. The answer to her question this point is obvious, and she continues. “If the teachers see their vessels, the anti-magic toxin can get to them. If they’re kept out of sight, though…..have you tried putting them in your backpack?”

 

He doesn’t really want to interrupt, so he hangs back, just out of sight of Beato as the conversation continues. 

 

“They’d get scared, Uuu.” 

 

“The Chiesters? They’re repurposed combat androids, right? They probably still have their radar and x-ray vision from before they were given these vessels. So they wouldn’t necessarily need a line of sight to see what’s going on. In faaact...they’ve likely got a data link between all of them, like internet!” She gently taps the heads of the rabbits, giving Maria time for the knowledge to sink in. 

 

“Like internet? So they’d know what the others were seeing?”

 

“Exactly!” Beato smiles, twirling her finger in the air triumphantly. “You wouldn’t even need to bring all four of them-just one or two that you hide in your backpack would be able to see what was going on and relay it to the rest of them! They might even be able to tell Sakutaro and your other friends what’s going on as you’re in school if you leave a couple of them at home.”

 

The conversation is cute (something he would only admit if she were to pry it from his cold, dead fingers), but man. He did not know that Beato was that big a nerd. While interrupting this conversation is tempting-Beato’s back is to him, and he doubts she knows he’s there-he has more important things to do. Such as figuring out who in the room is willing to trade. 

 

He doesn’t really want to humiliate her, anyways. The times she’d kicked his ass (both normally and via 9-year-old proxy) were more in good fun, in his opinion. This feels a whole lot more personal. 

 

Lion’s behind the counter today, wearing one of those store aprons, so the person overseeing the meetup is a tall guy, almost as tall as he is. His hair is a deep red, with a single bright crimson streak through it. There’s an almost intimidating aura to him, but he’s surprisingly polite as he’s called over to explain a ruling to somebody. 

 

He ends up trying to talk to a couple of people who aren’t in the middle of combat, opening the binder he brought with him and trying to strike up conversation. They’re both polite when they tell him that they don’t exactly have the cards he wants, so he tries another pair. No dice. 

 

Until the guy overseeing things glances over his shoulder, everybody more or less politely dismisses him. 

 

“You’re looking for trades?”

 

“Yeah. Looking for a couple specific older cards.” The older redhead nods before scanning Battler’s binder, tapping a couple of the cards he has, both of them cats. 

 

“I can trade for those.” He then leaves for a moment to search the backroom before returning with his binder, probably from storage in back, flipping through it before landing on a section for his archetype. There’s a lot of the cards he was asking for on the page, but that’s not what catches his eye.

 

The first dozen or so pages?  _ Entirely _ filled with cats. They’re not even just from duel monsters-there are a couple cards from games he doesn’t recognize, as well as a dozen or so cards that must be in french or some other foreign language thrown into the mix. Cats fill up at least one page out of ten in that binder. 

 

The man fishes out a couple of cards, taking his cat cards in exchange and purposefully filing them away in their own individual pockets. When the transaction is over, Battler is not entirely sure what he just did, but he managed to get a couple more cards for his deck, and the other guy seems to really like his cats, so...win-win? Maybe?

 

And also, Beato’s done nerding out to Maria. He still needs to add the new cards in, and she nods as he settles himself in next to the brunette, spreading out the cards and trying to pick out what to replace. The rabbits are still on the table, watching, and he’s careful not to nudge them. 

 

They both watch him, Beato eyeing what he’s putting in. 

 

“Will you and Ange be in the upcoming tournament?” Ah, the one that’s been advertised on the posters in the shop window. It’s during a weekend, so no schedule conflicts there. There are a couple of age divisions, so there wasn’t any chance Ange would get browbeat by some 30-year-old dude with a $500 deck, and there’s a couple of packs of cards as a grand prize.

 

“Maybe.” Entry’s free, so it’s tempting. At this, he finishes card wrangling, and scoops the cards into a deck, tapping it against the table a couple times to get them all in line before shuffling. 

 

“Also, since Ange’s not here today, do you want to fight Battler?” Beato’s words are directed to Maria, who perks up and moves over to the blonde’s side of the table, taking a deck out of her handbag. He wanted to fight Beato, but he’s a gentleman! He won’t complain about it. 

 

“Kihihihi! You won’t be able to beat me, even if you go all-out!” She grabs a starting hand after winning rock-paper-scissors, and plays a couple of cards in quick succession, dragging out one of the ace monsters he saw during her first fight: some sort of stuffed animal-scissor-tiger hybrid, using its effect to draw out another monster used to summon it, some sort of squid thing. Both of them also have more attack than any monster individually in his deck, and his starting hand...probably can’t beat that. 

 

He draws, and yup. Maria doesn’t have anything in her hand after busting out those two powerhouses, but he can’t really bring out anything that can defeat her in one turn, or even destroy her monsters. He can get out a couple monsters that’ll likely be destroyed next turn, but might be able to get them back later via revival effects, and get out a small combo with them. 

 

He has to end his turn there, and Maria gleefully destroys his field, managing to hit him directly for a hefty chunk of damage. 

 

“You’re not holding back, are you, Battleeeer? She’s played against adults and won, you knooooow.” Beato’s signature grin is there, but he can read between the lines well enough. He ditched the thought of going easy after she busted out those two powerhouses on the first turn. All he can really do at this point is stall and hope he draws something that can turn it in his favor.  Next turn, she manages to hit him again, to the point where he won’t be able to take another on his next turn without losing. And he doesn’t draw anything that can turn it around, so he ceeds the match. 

 

At this, Beato decides to walk over to his side of the table, sitting down next to him. 

 

“Battler clearly needs more help than you do, Maria!” There’s a grin, and she shakes his shoulder as she scoots closer to him. There’s more than enough space on this side, but she’s placed herself just close enough that their thighs are touching. And...he’s not blushing, he’s not, but this is the first time she’s been this close to him. 

 

She smells nice, but that’s not the point. Neither is how fluid her movements are as she scoops up his cards and starts shuffling his deck before handing it back to him. She’s just trying to make sure he’s not holding back against Maria, he’s pretty sure, but dammit Beato there’s a good meter of space between his thighs and the edge of the table. It’s nothing he particularly  _ dislikes _ , but she’s just so...close. There’s plenty of space for him to scoot away from her, but he doesn’t make any effort to move. 

 

The second match is a little more even. Just slightly. Maria is  _ good _ , and Beato may or may not have let slip halfway through a turn that she consistently places in the under 18 division, something that doesn’t surprise him after she completely obliterates him in under three turns. He manages to squeeze out a win in round three, but just barely. 

 

Somewhere around that time, Beato’s stomach rumbles. 

 

“Are you hungry?” He glances over at her, still very, very close, before gently tapping her shoulder. 

 

“It’s fiiiiine.” She shrugs, trying to get attention back on the match, before Maria pitches in.

 

“Sakutarou’s also hungry. We should get food for him, too.” She holds up her stuffed lion, who playfully ‘speaks’ and confirms the request. Her voice for him is cute; high-pitched, with the puppetry just adding onto the performance. There’s a bit of a look in her eyes and face that suggests that just maybe Sakutarou is speaking up in order to get Beato out to eat something.

 

“Well, we can’t have Sakutarou going hungry.” She leans back and stretches (still mind-bogglingly close to him) before standing up, and the duo leaves the shop. He takes a glance at the clock on the wall-it’s getting a little late, and a couple minutes the tall guy with red hair announces a five-minute limit for matches before everybody has to leave, and twenty-five minutes before the shop closes for the day. 

 

Normally it’s not an issue, but he notices the bunny band still sitting on the table. Maria would probably want them back, so he gently scoops them up in his arms when the overseer starts dismissing people, placing them on the checkout counter in front of Lion once the bulk of the people in the store have left, including the other redhead. They give him a weird look, but nod after a moment.

 

“Good idea. Maria wouldn’t want to leave them behind.” They don’t mind him sticking around as the shop is closed up, the blonde making a couple of notes on stock and checking the backroom. There’s just the two of them in the store now, and Lion takes the opportunity to flip the plaque in the window from ‘OPEN’ to ‘CLOSED’, and to bring out a cell phone for a couple seconds, probably to text Beato.

 

There’s a swath of awkward silence, so he tries to break it.

 

“So...how exactly do you know Beato?” There’s a snort of laughter from Lion, who heads to the backroom and beckons for him to follow. He’s passed a couple of books and whatnot from the shelves in back before he gets an answer. Fair enough.

 

“Childhood friends. We’re not related, but we looked almost like identical twins before hitting puberty.” Now that they mention it, he can see it clearly enough. Beato’s got a bit more pudge on certain places on her face, and...a fairly substantial chest. But the general shape of her face, her nose, and the color of her hair is almost an exact match to Lion. 

 

“Even back then, she tended to wear her hair up in that bun hairstyle. And one day, she figured out that I’d be absent from school. So she decided to  _ wear the kind of clothes I would, put her hair in a ponytail, and pretend to be me _ .” There’s an almost incredulous tone to their voice, as if even ten years later they still couldn’t believe she’d do something that  _ ridiculous _ . “The teachers figured it out right away, but still...”

 

“And that’s how you’re friends?”

 

“Unfortunately.” There’s a pause as the phone buzzes, interrupting Lion. It leaves Battler a second to mull over the tone they used a second ago; it’s the way you’d talk about a particularly adventurous cat that might’ve gotten into the garbage for the third time in a week, but was loved and pampered regardless of their misadventures. The blondes care about each other, even if they act fed up with the other at time. 

 

“She’ll have to pick them up tomorrow. I texted her, and she won’t be able to come back for another 20 minutes, and I need to get home.” Lion tries to be polite, but there’s an element of sadness in their voice, which is more than enough for him to decide on his own course of action.

 

“Let me do it! There’s benches outside. I can wait.” It’s a nice summer night, the area outside is well-lit, and most importantly, he’s got an unfinished paperback in his bag. Maria seemed to really like the figurines. He remembers having a few stuffed animals like that when he was a kid. And the crying fit he’d almost had when he couldn’t find Ms. Snuffles one night, where Asumu had to hold him and assure him that she’d certainly return to him if he cleaned the house and looked around. Waiting a little while longer before returning home wouldn’t be that big a deal for him, anyways; Ange isn’t here, so staying late isn’t an issue. There’s a glance before Lion turns their eyes down to send a text. The phone buzzes almost immediately afterwards, and the screen is tilted towards Battler so he can see the reply.

  
  


Eloquent as always. He skims the couple of messages above it about the nearby convenience store being closed, and Maria wanting to eat something specific. 

 

The bunnies-no, erm, how did she put it,  _ repurposed combat androids, _ are picked up as Lion holds the door open for him (he thanks Lion, as he cannot open it himself easily; his arms are filled with clay rabbit). They’re deposited with care on top of one of the nearby benches before he pulls out the book he’d picked up earlier that week. It’s easy enough to get immersed that he doesn’t really notice time passing until he hears excited chatter, and sees Maria running towards the bench, obviously relieved as she picks up each statue individually and carefully places them, one by one, into her bag. 

 

Beato, on the other hand, is looking intently at the cover of his book with a mixture of amusement and...is that fondness? He holds it up a little, so she can get a better look: it’s an old mystery novel, picked up at significant discount from a used bookstore. 

 

“Christie? Not bad.”

 

“...What?” It takes a second to match the name with the author’s name, emblazoned on the top of the page margins. “You like her books?”

 

“Of course! Her books are one of the cornerstones of the genre.” He can’t see her face perfectly by the light of the streetlamps, but judging from the tone of her voice, they’ve almost certainly got that same glint that appeared when they were dueling. Huh. Beato didn’t strike him as the type to be really into mystery, but now that it’s on the table...he can see it, yeah.

 

“We should be getting back, Maria. It’s late.” There’s a nod of agreement as the two head back, and he heads for the nearest bus stop a couple minutes later. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


The tournament is a couple of weeks later, in the middle of a Saturday. There’s a quick once-over of the forty-something contestants in the shop, to make sure everybody in accounted for before the tall redhead he’d seen before begins to write down the names of the contestants on slips of paper in the back of the spare room. The pair of him and Ange manages to find Beato and Maria before the names are chucked unceremoniously into a hat, sitting down next to them. 

 

The giant whiteboard on the wall has already had the brackets drawn up by Lion, along with a far smaller accompanying one to symbolize the under-18 division. The redhead announces the rules fairly statically: there are 2 blocks for for the over 18 division because there are 32 participants, and every match in a particular block will be done at once. The under-18 has a single block since only 8 people entered. 

 

“Ready for your rival to take this tournament?” He lounges back a little, trying not to show nervousness as he taps her shoulder. She gives him an almost taunting smile at that.

 

“If you can place in the top two...” She pauses, tapping her lip, trying to figure out what would be the equivalent type of prize to award, before continuing. “I’ll get you a couple packs of cards.”

 

“What, don’t think I can take first?”

 

“Kiyahahaha! With both Lambdadelta and Bernkastel in the running? Even I only have a one-in-a-thousand shot of winning the grand prize.”

 

“Ihihihi, then what if I can beat the odds and win first…?” There’s a gleam in her eyes as he speaks, and that awful, terrible grin is back.

 

“If you can create a miracle like that, I’ll…...hmmmm.” She scrunches up her face as she tries to figure out something suitable, some reward that can transcend a couple packs of cardboard. Judging from her expression, imagining such a thing is difficult. “I’ll buy you and Ange dinner during the meetups for the rest of the year.”

 

“Then if you can get to second place, I’ll get  _ you _ dinner for a night instead!” He’s pretty sure she’s already got all the cards she wants, anyways. 

 

“Hoh, and if I get first…?”

 

“Same bet as you! Dinner for the rest of the year. And for Maria. Any objections?”

 

There are none, and then, without further ado, the tall guy starts rummaging through the hat, drawing names and calling them to Lion, who starts writing them on the board.

 

“Block A: Gertrude and Erika. Lambdadelta and Belphegor.” He keeps trailing off, until, finally, he reaches the last pair for the first block.

 

“Bernkastel and Battler.” Oh, that’s him. He’s never heard of anybody named Bernkastel, though Beato’s making one of her many faces at the matchup.

 

“You’ll have to fight both Bern and Lambda to get first place.” She stretches, before pointing him over at another side of the room, where a lanky purple-haired girl is sitting with a blue-haired gal in pigtails. “Long hair’s Bern. You don’t have any handtraps, riiiight?”

 

“Uh….no?” It takes a second for the definition to click; handtraps are monsters you discard to negate effects. Unlike normal negation spell or trap cards, they can typically negate effects during the first turn, which is usually critical to building an advantage. And because the whims of the supply and demand card game god are fickle, they tend to cost some ridiculous amount of yen per copy, so he doesn't play any. 

 

“Good luck, then!” It’s half sarcastic, half serious, and he’s almost scared to know why she’s acting like this when Bern comes up. She can’t be that bad, right?

 

“Block B. Cornelia and Gaap. Mammon and Beatrice.” There’s a couple more names called out before they start on the kid division. Ange’s up against Maria round 1, coincidentally. 

 

“Better start picking out a restaurant, Battleeeeer!” She almost lounges on his shoulder, her elbow up against the back of his neck. Too bad for her that it completely prevents her from doing almost anything when he reaches over to her forehead, ruffling through her bangs. Checkmate, Beato. 

 

He gets over to his designated spot once Beato stops hanging off of him, something easier said than done, to find Bernkastel. She’s...tiny, but there’s a weird ‘better-than-you’ aura about her as she sets up her side of the field.

 

She also manages to win rock-paper-scissors, and thus goes first, as Beato, his sister, and Maria watch.

 

“Summon, and search.” She taps a card to the field before activating its effect to search for another card in her deck. She’s surprisingly quick about it, rifling through a couple dozen cards in a matter of seconds before finding what she wants before shuffling it. Then, she grabs another card from her hand, activating it.

 

“Machine duplication. Special summon two copies of this from the deck.” She taps the card she just placed down a second ago, pausing to glance at him, almost daring him to try something to stop it.

 

“Kihihihi! Bern’s going to take this game if you can’t negate that card right now, Battler.” Maria interrupts Bern as she reaches for her deck to sift out those two copies, evidently taking Battler’s lack of response as an affirmative that he couldn’t counter it. 

 

“I believe there are rules against giving players tips during the tournament.” Bern has a sly grin on her face, enough to completely get rid of any suspicions that Maria was trying to mislead him with her advice. The way she moves and speaks is almost like a perfect foil of Beato, at least as an opponent; elegant, and while not entirely in-your-face, obviously thinks of herself as superior to him. Either way, he indicates that he can’t really counter that activation, and Bern continues to fish out another card, placing both of them on the field. 

 

“When these are summoned, each can search a card from the deck.” Two more cards are fished out and added to her hand. “I sacrifice these two on the field to summon this.” 

 

The thing she brings from the extra deck isn’t too intimidating, but at least it seems that combo is over, and she’ll end her turn h-

 

“By discarding 2 cards in my hand, I can revive the two monsters I just sacrificed.” Okay, fair enough. That means that she can probably summon another one of those monsters she summoned a second ago.

 

“When those two are special summoned, I can search my deck for two cards of their archetype.”

 

This can’t possibly be  _ legal _ . He gives a glance at Beato, trying to see if maybe she was seeing an illegal move or something, but she just gives an almost pitiful smile, which….he’s probably already screwed if  _ Beato’s _ looking at him like a cat who just got drenched in a rainstorm.

 

“You’re about a quarter into her combo! She’s still got maybe 30 or so more effects before she’ll end her turn.” It’s almost encouraging, if not for the...you know, thirty more card effects. What the literal hell. 

 

“...Thirty.”

 

“I believe I told you  _ no advice _ . And as I was  _ saying _ , I overlay them to special summon this.” 

 

After hearing that he wasn’t even halfway done, his eyes may or may not have glazed over. The thing she summoned can search a non-archetype card by detaching a card. Cool. The thing she detached can summon itself again if she discards a card, and will search for another card when it summons itself again. Fine. Aaaand now she’s sacrificing the monsters she just spent a good two minutes chaining effects to summon to summon another monster. 

 

His brain starts drifting at this point, between wondering how the hell this deck got greenlit in the first place and who the hell spends their time thinking up 40-card combos for this stuff using random cards you wouldn’t even look twice at under normal circumstances. All he knows is that at the end of her turn, she’s got no less than 5 powerhouse cards on her field, all with some sort of weird effect.

 

But whoever goes first cannot attack during their first turn, so it’s his turn now. 

 

“Summon!” He slams the card down, ready to use the effect of it in order to get something stronger on his field.

 

“Bounce.” She taps one of the cards on the field. “Return it to the hand.”

 

Well.

 

That kinda killed everything he was planning. He can’t summon anything else this turn, and he can’t really bring out anything strong via effects. He sets a couple cards, leaving him with a completely empty field, save for two cards set that won’t really do anything to destroy her ridiculously strong board. 

 

Bern completely obliterates him off the face of the planet next turn. Or at least, he wishes she did, because Beato is watching and this match is best two out of three. But he’s a proud Ushiromiya man, and proud Ushiromiya men do not back down from a challenge. Most of the time. He’s seeing why Beato warned him that placing second was one of the best possible outcomes. 

 

Round 2 proceeds, and goes as well as the first, save for the fact that Bern goes second and wins the match turn 2, not turn 3, knocking him out of the tournament. 

 

He’d scoop up the shattered remnants of his pride, but unfortunately Bern had cleared those away as her first priority, wiping away everything on his side of the field. She picks up her cards, sorting them and walking away from the card game carnage that she had wreaked upon his unprepared form, leaving just him, Beato, Ange and Maria.

 

“Kihihihihi! You should’ve seen the look on your face!” 

 

“Basically everybody in the shop except Lambda almost always loses when faced with Bern.” Beato shrugs, and the implication here that she’s one of those people who has also lost to her soothes the wound in his pride a little. “She’s the kind of person who runs whatever deck is currently strongest.”

 

By this time, most of the other people in the block have finished their matches, due partially due to Bern’s ridiculously long combos drawing out the match. So he watches Beato seat herself across from a girl with long green hair in preparation for the next match as Lion crosses the names of losers off of the brackets, going over parts of the blue base of the bracket diagram with red in order to signify who will be advancing to the next round. 

 

The next block begins a moment later, and Beato springs into action. Mammon uses some sort of deck that’s intended to swarm the field with monsters, but Beato’s deck deals with it decently, setting up her own defenses that Mammon isn’t able to pierce, eventually succeeding in defeating her through chip damage. 

 

Mammon manages to win the second round through an early advantage, overwhelming her field through sheer numbers, but Beato clinches the third match, high-fiving Maria as she heads back to Lion to report the result of the round. 

 

The third block is the under-18 division. He sits next to Ange, who faces Maria. The result is more or less a steamroll, but Beato is there to remind the brunette to be a good sport about it. Ange takes the news a little better when Beato grins, ruffling her hair and reminding her that Battler got completely crushed against Bern, far worse than she did. It’s...an effective way to get her to cheer up, if she’s starting to recover enough to rub it in. 

 

Round 2 passes with Beato managing to win the first two matches, boosting her to the top eight, and Maria passing to the top four. She doesn’t really seem worried, but she does give an glance at the board.

 

“The most interesting match will be next round. Lambda versus Bern.” He glances over at the brackets; whoever wins that that one will be fighting the winner of Beato’s block for first place. And judging from the faces of everybody who’s been unlucky enough to fight either Lambda or Bern, it’ll be one of the two.

 

There’s already a small crowd gathered for Lambda and Bern’s match, and he’s got to crowd in the back. He’s not exactly met Lambda before, either; she’s short like Bern, with blonde hair and an outfit that probably has more pink in it than the average person wears in their life. 

 

And, most notably, she nips Bern’s ridiculous combination before she can play her third card, leaving just a single weak monster on her field. From there, she sets up...something. She pulls out a couple monsters easily enough-they’re cute royalty-themed cards, each some sort of pun on a different dessert, and goes for the weak thing she’d summoned, getting rid of it and managing to set up a decent enough board to wipe half her life in a single turn.

 

Bern draws, and there’s a very specific look that tells everybody nearby that she’s drawn into another one of those bullshit 40-card combo setups. 

 

“Lambda, couldn’t you have been a little considerate and bounced that back to my hand instead of destroying it?” 

 

“Sorry, Bern! You’re just so  _ cute _ when you’re in a pinch!” They keep this up as Bern starts one of her combos, but it’s cut off early as Lambda interrupts it once again, this time with a monster’s effect. She’s able to get a bit of a setup, and get rid of one of Lambda’s monsters, but what she can do is limited as she reduces her opponent down a couple hit points. 

 

It keeps going like this for a while. Lambda has the field that’s able to consistently interrupt her combos, but Bern keeps pushing, and eventually gets something the blonde can’t wholly get rid of, barely claiming the first fight after a good deal of struggling. 

 

He can kinda see why they’re considered the best in the shop. There’s a feeling about the fight that if either of them slips for a second, the other will lunge for their life, not sparing a second to slow down. They set up the board again, Lambda barely managing to win the second fight thanks to some clever combination interruptions and reviving a couple monsters at the last minute, forcing them to go into a third match to settle the matter.

 

Bern goes first for the last match, and sets up her board. Or tries to. Lambda doesn’t interrupt it, but she doesn’t have to; it must’ve been a bad opening hand, and she can only get a single stronger monster onto the field. One that Lambda is able to bounce off the field next turn, hitting her for a decent chunk of damage and opening up a combo that hits her further. It almost spirals from there, Bern managing to draw into a decent combo her next turn, but not enough to salvage the game and remain alive after two more turns. 

 

Lamba smiles, reclining back a little at the victory before snatching up a couple of Bern’s cards remaining on the table and shuffling them back into her deck, handing it back and holding her hand out for a handshake when she’s done. There’s a soft  _ tch _ from Bern, but she accepts it nonetheless. 

 

The rest of the block proceeds, with Beato barely scraping into the top 4, and Maria once again winning, taking the grand prize of the junior division. 

 

There’s just a single match left now: Beatrice and Lambdadelta. 

 

The bulk of the crowd has left by the time Lambda defeats Bern, but there’s still a sizeable number left to watch the final match. The shorter blonde frantically waves over at Bern and tapping the seat next to her before it starts, trying to get her to sit next to her. Bern sighs, but smiles a little as she settles in a seat next to Lambda, lazily resting her chin on her palm to watch the match. A moment later, Beato and Lambda exchange decks for the other to shuffle, returning them to their opponent a moment later.

 

“Show me an exciting fight, m’kay, Beato?”

 

“Hoh? You  _ know _ my fights are always heart-pounding, riiiiight?” They continue like this for a couple minutes, joking around, but he can tell Beato’s tense. She’d ranked basically everybody except Bern a good number of rungs underneath Lambdadelta, after all. 

 

Beato takes the first turn, bringing out Beatrice fairly easily as Lambda watches. Once it’s her turn, she shrugs, setting up a combo and bouncing Beatrice off the field. It’s not quite a one-turn kill, but it’s enough that she’s not able to regain control of the field, and loses next turn. Almost the second she does, Maria runs up to her, hugging her from behind. 

 

Beatrice...whatever her last name was, queen of being a terrible rival, freaked out by a single hug by a nine-year-old. She tenses at the sudden contact, but relaxes once she glances down and notices that it’s Maria’s sleeves around her torso.

 

“You can do it, Beato!” She squeezes tighter, forcing the blonde to put her cards down and turn around. She manages to detangle the arms around her waist a moment, later, but her demeanor has changed, from nervous to that old familiar personification of confidence, shoulders relaxed and mouth twisted up in a grin as she stands up before her opponent.

 

“I am Beatrice, ruler of the burning abyss! Challenge me if you dare!” She grabs her cards, thrusting them at Lambda to shuffle in preparation of the next match. She grins, taking the deck and handing Beato hers in exchange, as Bern slowly claps.

 

“You won’t defeat Lambda, but I’ll enjoy your struggling.” 

 

This shop  _ really _ needs to start kicking people out for bad behavior.

 

Beato goes first again, but this time her first turn is a little different. Two monsters are playing, sacrificed for a third more powerful one-the exact same move she opened the last game with.

 

“You’re going to have to try a bit harder than that, Beato.” Lambda’s cards are maybe a couple centimeters from her chin, almost giving the impression that she’s a noble holding a fan, watching with interest as a lower-ranking countryman proposes some ridiculous scheme.

 

“Hoh, but I am!” Slowly, deliberately, and dramatically, she hovers a couple fingers over one of the cards in her hand, before snatching it and holding it up to the ceiling before slamming it down on the table. “Rank-up-magic! I take Beatrice, and use her as material for this!” 

 

He’s not really sure what she’s doing now, but she’s swapped Beatrice out for a stronger monster that he hasn’t seen before, and it takes a moment to figure out what the point of that was. Beatrice has a powerful effect that activates when she is destroyed, but Lambda’s deck relies on moving powerhouse monsters from the field back to the deck, bypassing destruction entirely. But her deck also relies heavily on effects involving the graveyard, and it’s pretty likely that she could revive Beatrice if needed if she was in the graveyard. But if it’s attached to another card, when  _ that _ card is sent to the deck, Beatrice would be sent to the grave, not sent back to the deck.

 

Along with that, he’s pretty sure that this game is really, absurdly, obnoxiously complicated. 

 

But it puts Beato in a decent position as Lambda begins her counterattack. She’s able to get a couple monsters on the field, and hits the monster Beato summoned with an effect, sending it back to the deck, but sending Beatrice and Dante to the graveyard. Beato manages to get an effect off of Dante, adding a card into her hand.

 

“Trap card! I revive Dante and Beatrice back onto the field! You’re not able to shove them back in the deck again this turn!” 

 

“Huh? What a pain!” She huffs and crosses her arms, glaring at her monsters before ending her turn. And Beato? She’s got that smirk on her face.

 

“Twin twisters!” She discards a card, getting rid of the two supporting spell cards Lambda has set up, before gleefully going after Lambda’s field, taking out a chunk of her life. There’s not much for Lambda to work with after her turn ends, in regards to her field and her hand, so she’s forced to throw a couple cards facedown and end her turn there. 

 

She’s able to put a stop to Beato getting rid of her the next turn, but after a third turn, is defeated. Match point. Lambda’s a bit flummoxed, tilting her head to the side as she looks at the field. Bern, on the other hand, is half-amused.

 

The third and final game starts with Lambda opening, setting up an absolutely terrifying opening board. Beato manages to get her monsters on the field, hitting a couple of Lambda’s cards, but she’s got enough of them on the field that she’s able to hit the ground running when Beato finishes her turn, destroying everything Beato just brought out. 

 

From there, it’s all downhill before Beato loses. But she keeps that relaxed posture, shaking her hand after the match and calmly filing her cards away. 

 

“Uuu. Beato...” The blonde just smiles a little, patting her head.

 

“Is that the proper way for the girl who just won her division to act?” She laughs, before glancing over her shoulder at him. “Better start planning that daaaate, Battler!”

 

“Gladly! How do you feel about Hooters?” He gently smacks a hand on her shoulder as she bursts out cackling, slapping her legs for a good couple of seconds.

 

“Isn’t the nearest one a couple districts overrrrr? You’d be paying more for train tickets than the meal costs.” Sure, maybe he wasn’t entirely serious with that suggestion, but he has to protect his reputation as a professional breast sommelier by suggesting that restaurant every time the situation arises! Otherwise he loses his completely legitimate and totally not imaginary certification regarding the matter! Breaking the tension was just an added bonus here. 

 

“Why don’t you pick the place, then?” 

 

“...If there’s a place near your house, that will work. I can walk Maria home after the weekly meetups.” 

 

There is a place; Asumu used to take him there, years ago. 

 

“There is.”

 

The devil’s contract has been signed. No backing out now, unless he were to suddenly come down with some illness or disease or get murdered by an internet hitman. 

  
  
  


And okay, maybe he’s a little nervous the day of. Just a little! It’s not like he spent the couple hours before taking Ange over to the shop adjusting his tie and making sure he smelled nice or kept rehearsing different ways the day could play out in his head endlessly like a broken tape recorder. Nope. Absolutely not.

 

On a slightly related note, he is  _ absolutely _ prepared if, say, an actual internet hitman shows up in the flesh, out to murder him for his connection to his stepmom who is vaguely tangentially connected to the mafia. 

 

And he  _ certainly _ doesn’t ask Ange if she thinks Beato would like his outfit. (His sister just shoots him a confused look). 

 

“Enjoy the night!” Of course his old bastard would catch him and Ange going out like this, a knowing expression and wink playing out across his face.  _ Of course _ . 

 

“We will!” Ange’s excited to see Maria again, and...well, she’s not the only one who almost gasps when she sees Beato.

 

Her golden hair, always held up in a bun, cascades down her shoulders and back, almost down to the coat she’s bunched up in her lap. It’s one hell of an effect; he had no idea it was even nearly that long. Ange, eyes wide, slowly approaches her as if she were one of those skittish stray cats that hang around the house, hand tentatively outstretched. 

 

“Can I braid it?” In response, Beato gives a small laugh and rotates herself so that Ange can sit down next to her and braid it.

 

“Just...don’t tug much, okay?” To be perfectly honest, he’s a little jealous of Ange, because her hair looks so  _ soft _ that his first instinct is to run his hands through it. But he is a man of pride, and valiantly resists the desire.

 

…..And besides, maybe she’ll let him touch it later. 

 

Maria comes up a second later and insists that  _ no, Ange, you’re doing it all wrong! _ and starts showing her obviously superior method of braiding hair as Beato winces a little.

 

“Muuu! I thought I said no pulling!”

 

“That’s because Ange doesn’t know how to braid, uuuu!”

 

“Mom, Dad and Battler all have short hair! Nobody ever lets me braid theirs!” He laughs; given Beato’s current tethered-by-children status, she can’t turn around and disentangle them, so he’s the only one who can do it, gently catching their arms and moving them back. 

 

“Kiyahahaha! You can solve that problem if you convince Battler to grow his hair out.” The Face is back, but Ange is more focused on processing this piece of heavenly information that Beato has just fed her, as if she just had some sort of divine revelation. 

 

“.....that means he’ll have hair that isn’t dumb…!”

 

“It’s not dumb!” Ange will pry this hair, which he spends a good ten minutes styling every morning, from his cold, dead hands. 

 

His sister continues wrongfully insisting that his hair is ridiculous for another couple of minutes, an incorrect, terrible opinion that he unsuccessfully tries to convince her against, but ultimately his opinion is rebuffed. Which is fine. She’s only eight, far too young to fully appreciate the graceful, mature style of hair slicked back like his is. 

 

Eventually the argument is abandoned once Lion walks over, noticing the commotion, and offers to loan their deck for Ange to borrow, effectively defusing the argument. Maria’s already puppeteering Sakutarou, having him ‘draw’ and play against Ange, so he turns his attention back to Beato. 

 

“So, the place I was thinking of is within walking distance of my place, but we’d need to catch the bus first to get back.” To be more specific, it’s the old place Asumu used to take him when he was a kid. Along with where his mom and Rudolf used to go all the time for dates, but, ah, that’s got no bearing on the situation. None at all. Nope.

 

“That’s fine.” Then, after a second, she gives an amused, self-satisfied face. “You’re nervouuuuus.”

 

You know what, that scenario with the internet hitman? Please actually happen and spare him from further embarrassment. He can tell she’s more teasing him with it than anything, but he is maybe, just a little, nervous. But it’s fine, just...change the subject, that’ll work right?

 

“So, how come I never saw those cards you used against Lambda used against me? I was under the impression a rival was supposed to go all-out.” The hook half-works. Basically everything in the way Beato composes herself tells him that she knows what he’s trying to do, buuuuut she’s his rival and can’t resist talking about it.

 

“Side deck. I needed something to deal with Lambda’s disruption tactics, so I switched them in between matches.” She pulls her deckbox out of a pocket in the jacket, spreading the cards over the table in front of him. He glances at some of them-it’s mostly minor cards, but he can see where she might swap in this one or that one, depending on context. A couple of them are pretty esoteric and situational, and he’s pretty sure he spots a couple specifically tailored to shut down Bern and her combos. 

 

He’s still not entirely forgiven the Konami employee who thought that archetype was a good idea. 

 

The rest of the meetlie passes by, and he manages to get a couple wins against Beato (he wins about one time out of three now! Progress!) before the shop closes for the night. The blonde waves them off for a moment to walk Maria home, before returning a little later to the bus stop.

 

The bus comes, and after a fairly awkward trip, Ange is returned home for the night, and Beato is led to the restaurant. It’s maybe a five-minute walk, and the night feels nice as he glances over at her every once in a while. 

 

The restaurant's an older one, sacrificing the stark bright lighting that so many fast food stores have for a dimmer glow, wooden tables, and cushy bench seating. It’s a mostly traditional donburi place, with a couple of desserts and appetizers on the back of the menu, hidden behind all the different possible orders of rice bowls. Their server smiles, giving them tea as she takes their order and heads back to the kitchen. 

 

Once the server is gone, it gets awkward. 

 

Beato had been teasing him almost nonstop before heading over, but now that she was actually in the shop, seated across from him, she looks almost like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. Kinda. She doesn’t quite let it on, but there’s that tenseness to her posture that he’d only seen while she was fighting Lambda.

 

“This….erm, doesn’t have to be romantic if you don’t want it to be.” She’s dressed up for the occasion, and seemed enthused at the prospect a couple days ago, but if Beato’s not interested...well, it’s not that big a deal. He doesn’t quite look like it, but he was popular in high school; he’d been both the victim and target of unrequited crushes more times than he could count, enough times to know that feeling of love was ultimately worthless in the long run if you weren’t friends underneath it all. 

 

Or, in this case, rivals. He likes Beato. She’s fun to talk to, fun to fight with. It’s not a bond he wants to toss away just because of an unrequited crush. 

 

She puts her teacup down, tenses her shoulders up, and sighs, as if to make some earth-shattering proclamation. 

 

“The goal of a rival is to see through to your opponent’s heart!” That one persona is back, any traces of nervousness or anxiety gone and replaced with that regal aura as she thumps a fist against her chest. “Don’t tell me you’re as bad at reading people as you are at card games, Battleeeer!”

 

It’s exactly like her to say something that explains both nothing and everything at once. Of course.

 

“I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t subjecting my beloved rival to a date she didn’t want!” 

 

“Hoh, so it’s a date now?” She grins, resting her chin on both her curled-up fists as she leans forwards across the table. “Does this mean I’m getting a kiss at the end?”

 

“...Erm, yes...” Beato’s face is soft, and okay maybe he’s had thoughts of kissing her a couple times when he was running through scenarios beforehand! It’s perfectly normal! He needs to know how it’s possible for that face which routinely contorts into impossible expressions to kiss somebody! It’s for science! 

 

Her face is also turning a subtle shade of pink, almost impossible to pick up in the golden light of the restaurant, and he  _ knows _ deep in his soul that his cheeks are gaining color too, even without looking in a mirror. Luckily, the server comes over with their food before any further awkward silence can result. 

 

The food has a healthy layer of steam rising off of both the rice and the toppings: gyudon topped with egg for him, unagi don for her. There’s another awkward pause, as they both stare at each other, waiting for their food to cool enough to eat, but not wanting to blow on it to cool it down. You know, as a pride thing.

 

…….Except, you know what? Beato’s already seen him lose to a 9-year-old. Multiple times. His pride can’t sink any lower than that, as he blows on his meal for a couple seconds before digging in. It’s delicious, the flavor hitting all the right notes as he nibbles on it, Beato following suit a second later. He can’t vouch for the fried eel bowl-he’s always gone to this place as a special occasion, and never really often enough to try everything on the menu-but she’s chewing slowly and closing her eyes to savor the taste, so it’s enough to make him regret not getting it, just a teensy bit. 

 

Luckily, he notices Beato eyeing his bowl maybe halfway through the meal, and takes his chance, giving her a grin.

 

“I’ll let you have a bite if I can get one from your bo~wl, ihihihi.” The blonde responds with a grin of her own, scooping up a decent chunk of unadon with her chopsticks, and reaching them across the table. 

 

He really should’ve maybe expected something like this from her. 

 

“Say ‘aaaah’.” 

 

It’s all useless. All of it. But he’s technically the one paying here, so he should at least get a bite! To make sure it’s good! And absolutely, positively not because he’s enjoying Beato’s flirtations. Even if he’s blushing a little more than he was a minute ago as he closes his eyes and opens his mouth. She’s a bit forceful with the chopsticks, accidentally poking the roof of his mouth a little more than necessary, and there’s some rice on his chin from it, but the taste of the eel and rice is heavenly. 

 

Beato snatches a chopstick-full of his food before he can return the favor, munching and commenting that it tastes pretty good. She’s a faster eater than he is, and eventually he has to fend her off as her chopsticks get juuuust a little close to his bowl, occasionally snatching chunks of rice when he drops his guard. After she nabs her second chunk of dinner, he finally decides to try a more tactical maneuver.

 

“You mentioned you like mysteries, right? Do you have any favorites?” She pauses mid-bite, her eyes and face taking on that expression that tells him she’s taken the bait. He takes another nibble as he listens-while she definitely can’t steal any more food while she’s talking, he really does want to continue this train of thought. At the very least, hearing about somebody’s ideal murder mystery probably tells volumes about them personally, and he’s interested in what type of books she likes. He’s read all of Holmes, maybe a couple of Poirot, but not much else. 

 

“Christie. Poirot’s a good series, but her individual works are some of the best standalone stories in the genre. Carr is a close second, mostly because of his closed room murders.” He hasn’t heard of Carr before, and makes a mental note to pick up a couple of his stories, especially after she keeps talking for a couple more minutes as he eats, listening intently until he thinks he’s picked out a common theme of her favorites. 

 

“Impossible crimes?”

 

“Mmmm. You have to have a creative mind, and an eye to detail to think them up. Anybody can figure out the whodunnit and howdunnit in most regular mysteries just by guessing a random piece of evidence at the scene! But creating a closed room is an art. It requires thinking and logic to solve.” She keeps going like that for a couple more minutes, and it’s weirdly endearing, in the way that somebody talking about their hobbies is. ...Though if the situation were reversed, he’d doubtlessly be just as passionate talking about his favorite books and light novels to her. 

 

She eventually hits on a couple novels that they’d both read, and almost immediately manage to start up a conversation, talking about the mystery and the tricks behind it, his rice bowl almost completely forgotten. 

 

The bill comes eventually, gets paid and sent back, and eventually they end up leaving, Beato slipping her coat back on outside the shop.

 

“I believe you’re missing a very important part of the date, Battler.” She’s smiling, not exactly smirking-something a bit softer, and suddenly he’s noticing how  _ close _ she is, and...she’s on her toes, trying to make up a little of that dozen or so centimeters of height difference as she latches onto his shoulders for balance. 

 

The moon is out and the area outside the shop is decently lit, but he hopes that there’s just enough shadows around to maybe hide the deep crimson creeping to his cheeks as he leans in, wrapping his arms around her and putting his lips to hers. His eyes are closed, but he can feel Beato: her breath, the smile behind her lips, and her hair, all soft and warm. Neither of them try to deepen the kiss, instead relaxing in the embrace of the other. 

 

They remain like that for a couple minutes before breaking apart. 

  
  
  
  


He walks Beato back to the bus stop after that. It’s late as he sits down to wait with her, and after a moment notices a weight on his shoulder as she leans her head on it, half-asleep with golden tresses slipping down onto his coat. And in that moment, he becomes grateful for the ridiculously slow bus routes, even if only for a minute, as he snuggles closer to her. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


A year comes and passes. Many things change in that time; most notably, the key cards in Bern’s ridiculous combos  _ finally _ get on the banlist, forcing her to take up whatever new, ridiculously broken deck got released in the meantime. But aside from that, most things stay the same. The shop still hosts its weekly meet-and-fights, Bern  _ still _ isn’t banned from the shop for whatever reason, and he still attends the weekly scrimmages. 

 

The redhead-he’s learned in that time his name is Will, and that his lower body is typically covered in long white cat fur-nods to him from behind the counter as he enters with Ange, heading to the backroom. 

 

Maria and Beato are both there, and they’re both excitedly beckoned over. The blonde gets a small hug once he gets within range, before they both sit down opposite each other. Maria and Ange are both playing with the shop’s tin, spreading the cards out across the table as they watch, until eventually he ends up challenging Beato. She grins, pulling out a deck as he does the same, readying the field before they both simultaneously point at each other, both smiling like idiots as they simultaneously half-shout the same thing:

 

“YOU’RE ON!”

**Author's Note:**

> if you walk away from this fic with any impression, i'd like it to be that yugioh meta is a tire fire because bern's 40-card combo is a real thing that was actually legal for a couple months.  
> http://roadoftheking.com/spyral-basic-combo


End file.
